Humidifier



Nov. 15, 1966 M. A. POWERS HUMIDIFIER Filed Nov. 29, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheetl INVENTOR M/LTO/V A. POWERS ATTORNEYS Nov. 15, 1966 M. A. POWERS3,235,586

HUMIDIFIER Filed Nov. 29, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

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INVENTOR M/LTO/V A. POWERS gy/2M MQZM ATTORNEYS Nov 15, 1966 M. A.POWERS 3,285,586

HUMIDIFIER Filed Nov. 29, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet Z INVENTOR M/LTO/V A.POWERS /MMWM ATTORNEYS Nov. 15, 1966 M. A. POWERS 3,285,586

HUMIDIFIER Filed Nov. 29, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG. 5

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( I NVEN TOR M/L TON A. POWERS BYMMQZM ATTORNEYS Nov. 15,, 1966 M. A.POWERS 3,285,586

HUMIDIFIER Filed Nov. 29, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 86 INVENTOR M/LTO/V ,4.POWERS M MQQM ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,285,586 HUMIDIFIER MiltonA. Powers, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., assignor to Skuttle ManufacturingCompany, Milford, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Filed Nov. 29, 1963,Ser. No. 327,026 10 Claims. (Cl. 26192) This is a continuation-in-partof my copending application Serial No. 181,567 filed March 22, 1962 forR0- tary Drum Humidifier and System.

This invention relates to air humidifiers of the type wherein a rotor isdriven at a relatively slow speed with part of its periphery passingthrough a body of water, and the rotor lifts water out of the body intothe path of the air to be humidified.

A humidifier of this type wherein the rotor is preferably in the form ofa drum containing a surface layer of open pore foamed polyurethane orthe equivalent is disclosed in 'my copending application Serial No.181,567 filed March 22, 1962 for Rotary Drum Humidifier and System. Thepresent application represents certain variations and improvements overthe basic disclosure of said pending application, such comprising mainlythe use of flocked open pore polyurethane foam on the rotor and variousrotor configurations.

It is therefore the main object of this invention to provide a novelhumidifier wherein the rotor embodies a water pick up layer of flockedopen pore polyurethane foam or the equivalent.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel humidifierwherein the rotor mounts an annular body of open-pore plastic such asfoamed polyurethane, which is preferably flocked, said body being mainlyin the form of a disc which may be dished.

It is another object of the invention to provide a novel humidifierhaving a rotor mounting an annular body of material adapted to pick upwater from a relatively shallow bath through which its lower peripherypasses during rotation and including novel arrangements for increasingthe efficiency of the body of material in uniformly presenting maxim-umwater for evaporation in the path of .an air stream to be humidified.This latter may take the form of flocking a body of open pore foamedpolyurethane, or the like, or in some cases even where the body is ofunflocked open pore material it may take the form of receptacles on therotor for picking up charges of water from the body and depositing themin turn upon the section of the body in the path of said air.

"Further objects of the invention will appear as the descriptionproceeds in connection with the appended claims and the annexed drawingswherein:

FIGURE 1 is an end elevation, partially broken away and in section,showing humidifier apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation, partially broken away and sectionedsubstantially along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, further showing the humidifierapparatus;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section showing the flocked openpore foam structure of the water carrying element of the humidifierrotor;

FIGURE 4 is an end elevation similar to that of FIG- URE 1, broken awayand sectioned to show a further embodiment of the apparatus using a flatdisc water car-- rying element;

FIGURE 5 is a side elevation, partly broken away and in section alongline 55 of FIGURE 4 showing further detail of this apparatus;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view showing details of thestructure of the rotor;

FIGURE 7, is an end elevation, partially broken away Patented Nov. 15,1966 and sectioned, showing a further embodiment of the humidifierapparatus of the invention; and

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged fragmentary section showing a detail of thewater pick-up receptacle of FIGURE 7.

In all embodiments of the invention a rotor rotates slowly about asubstantially horizontal axis with a lower portion of its peripheryimmersed in water or a like liquid to be evaporated into the air to behumidified, and the rotor is specially constructed and arranged toinsure that its major portion which is disposed in the path of the airto be humidified always contains suflicient distributed water forevaporation over substantially the entire area that is moving across the.air path whereby optimum uniform efi'icient humidifying action isobtained. In some embodiments this is attained by a special flockedplastic open-pore foam structure that serves as a water lifting anddistributing element in the apparatus, and in another it is attained byincorporating external water pick-up receptacles with the rotor.

The humidifier comprises a housing 11 having walls here designated asfront wall 12, rear wall 13, top wall 14, bottom wall 15 and oppositeside walls 16 and 17.

Front wall 12 is integrally formed with a forwardly projecting boss 18surrounding an air inlet opening 19. Side wall 17 is formed with anintegral outwardly extending boss 21 surrounding an air outlet opening22. Bosses 18 and 21 are telescoped into suitable air conditioning,furnace or like conduit connections in practice, whereby air in thesystem is humidified by forced passage through housing 11 wherein itpicks up water by evaporation, and since no furnace or conduit detailforms part of the invention such will not be described herein. Whileopenings 19 and 22 are indicated as inlet and outlet for purposes ofthis description, the air flow may be reversed through humidifier 11.

Interiorly housing 11 mounts a shaft 23 carrying a rotor 24 andpreferably coaxial with circular wall opening 19. The front end of shaft23 rests rotatably in a suitable upwardly open bearing recess 25 formedin a block 26 fixed on a narrow rigid strap 27 that extends acrossopening 19 without appreciably blocking .air flow and is secured atopposite ends to the inner sides of Wall 12, as by fastener assemblies28. The top of recess 25 is closed by a strap 29 pivoted upon block 26as at 31 and having a hooked end connection with a rivet 32 in latchedposition.

The rear end of shaft 23 extends coaxially' slidably within a socket 33on the end of shaft 34 of a low speed electric motor unit 35 thatextends through aperture 36 in wall 13. A pin 37 slidable in an axialslot 38 of socket 33 provides a drive coupling between the shafts, buten- .ables their ready disconnection for a purpose to appear. The motorunit 35 is secured in fluid tight relation over aperture 36 upon therear wall 13.

Within the lower end of housing 14 is a reservoir containing a body ofwater 39 that is maintained at a constant level by a suitable float andvalve assembly. Here the incoming water supply conduit 41 terminates ina nozzle 42, and a float 43 acts through linkage 44 to urge closureelement 45 against the nozzle opening when the desired water level ispresent, and to uncover the nozzle to permit water flow to replenish thewater of body 39 when the level has become lowered. This. float andvalve assembly may preferably be that of my US. Letters Patent No.3,099,286 issued July 30, 1963.

In this embodiment of the invention the rotor 24 comprises a dishedskeletal wire frame 46 consisting of a plurality of equiangularly spacedspokes 47 having their inner ends fixed in a hub 48 non-rotatablysecured on shaft 23 as by key 49. Frame 46 is concave in the directionof air inlet opening 19, and it serves as a support for a flexible body51 of foamed synthetic plastic material 3 a that has a central aperture52 through which passes shaft Preferably body 51 is a normally flatflexible circular mat of suitable uniform thickness conformed to theillustrated dish shape by pushing it, from right to left in FIGURE 2,into lining relation with frame 46. At their outer ends each spoke 46 isbent radially inwardly at right angles at 53 to overlie the outerperipheral edge 50 of body 51 and then turned axially inwardly at rightangles at 54 to extend over the adjacent surface of body 51. In thismanner the body 51 is secured in saucer or dish shape on the shaft 23,and as shown in FIGURE 2 its lower periphery extends into the water ofreservoir 39 a distance only about equal to the edge thickness of body51.

The body 51 is preferably a mat of an open pore plastic of controlledpore size and which does not absorb water, more advantageously open cellfoamed polyurethane. Otheropen pore of foamed plastics are availablesuch as those of cellulose acetate, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene,polyethylene, foamed phenolics, foamed silicones-and foamed epoxyresins.

Polyurethane foam is preferable because it is usually fire resistant,readily flexible, and it does not sag whenthe pores are full of water.

In the invention I prefer to use a polyurethane foam of the typedisclosed in said copending application Serial No. 181,567. This is anopen-pore foam having a pore size of between ten and thirty pores perlineal inch, more advantageously about twenty pores per inch. Theforegoing and other characteristics of the polyurethane foam which makeit so unexpectedly advantageousfor the invention are disclosed in saidSerial No. 181,567 to which reference is made for further needed detail.

In the present invention the openpore polyurethane foam is flocked, thatis it is soaked in a light bodied adhesive which essentially coats allsurfaces including the internalpore walls and flock consisting of veryshort length 1, assuming counterclockwise rotor rotation, excess waterin the pores will by gravity flow down within and over the open porestructure, thereby distributing water uniformly over the entire area tofoam body 51 above the reservoir. Since the rotor 24 rotates at onlyslow speed there is practically no centrifugal force opposing thisgravity feed of water, and the pore size and other factors can be soselected and controlled that the entire major area of foam body 51 inthe path of the moving air will be maintained wet enough to provide adesired evaporation rate.

Float 43 and the associated valve assembly keep the level of reservoir39 high enough to supply the necessary water pick-up.

By using flocked foam at 51, it has been found that the water pick-upand evaporation capacity of the body 51 is greatly increased, since thecapillary action of the absorbent flock slows drainage and retains wateron the rotor in the air path sufliciently long enough to insureprolonged exposure for optimum evaporation. The flock therefore acts notonly to absorb and thereby pick-upand lift added excess Water from the.reservoir to raise it to a higher point from which it drains down overthe nonsubmerged'area, but it functions to prolong the wetted time andincrease the wetting action of the entire rotor with respect to the airbeing humidified. It has been found that by flocking the foam largerpore sizes, with attendant larger water pick-up capacity, may be used.

The invention thereforepr-ovides a novel rotary element humidifierwherein only a minor portion of the area of the cellular plastic waterpick-up and evaporating element is repeatedly submerged in the waterreservoir, but means is provided for insuring that sufficient water 1 ispicked up that the entire area of that element traversed up material onthe rotor be repeatedly submerged.

fibres is blown therethrough. This flock attaches itself I substantiallyuniformly to all of the adhesive coated surfaces when the adhesivehardens, some of the flock standing on end, and this flocking isindicated at 60 in FIG- URE 3, the open pores being shown at 61. Theflocking 60 is preferably cotton or some water absorbent material, andit may be fireproofed. The cotton flock usually consists of fibres aboutone-tenth of an inch or less in length.

The housing 11 preferably is composed of upper and lower halves 62 and63 having a separable central horizontal overlap edge joint 64 (FIGURE1). Each half is a one-piece molded plastic member, the plastic having asufliciently high content of asbestos or like heat resistant material torender it to withstand temperatures up to 300 F. without warping orsoftening. The top half 62 is readily removable, thereby exposing therotor, valve and other parts for servicing. When the rotor pores becomechoked with lime or other deposits, the entire rotor assembly isspeedily removed for cleaning by detaching shaft 23 from socket 33 andbearing 26.

In operation air 'to be humidified enters opening 19 into the concavesurface end of the rotor and passes through the body 51 before exitingthrough opening 22.

. With reference to FIGURE 2 it will be apparent that the maj or area ofthe polyurethane foam body 51 which is directly traversedby the air isnever immersed in the water eservoir, and only a minor peripheral areais imnflthe .water at 39. It has been found that the owly'rotatin'gbody51, about one half revolution per if V onsiderable amount of excesswater out 39,.allofthis water being carried upward around .the peripheryas the rotor water-is meant that the immersed area ter than will beevaporated therefrom. yi g the water reach a position about g h quadrantin FIGURE,

A real advantage of this is that less power is required to drive therotor and maintain it wetted.

In a successfully operating humidifier built according to FIGURES 1-3wherein the flocked polyurethane foam body 51 has an outer diameter ofabout eleven inches and an edge thickness 50 of one inch, with the rotorturning at one-half revolution per minute, the evaporation rate into 165F. air was about three pounds of water per hour.

FIGURES 4-6 illustrate a further embodiment of the invention wherein therotor 70 is a flat disc rather than the caged saucer of FIGURES 13.

Rotor 70 consists of an integral flat circular periphery layer 71 offlocked polyurethane foam pierced by shaft 23 as shown in FIGURE 5.Layer 71 is fixed upon shaft 23 by flat metal discs 72 and 73 engagingopposite sides and held thereadjacent as by snap rings 74 and 75 seatedin shaft grooves 76 and 77 respectively.

Operation of this embodiment is essentially the same as that of FIGUR'ESl-3, the evaporation element body 71 of the rotor having a minor outerperipheral area repeatedly submerging in the reservoir 39, and excesswater lifted by the minor outer peripheral area draining down to wet theentire major nonsubmerged area in the direct path of air flow duringrotation of the rotor.

FIGURES 7 and '8 illustrate another embodiment wherein the rotorassembly 80 is a flat disc 81 of open pore polyurethane secured on shaft23 by a hub disc 82 and an opposed disc 83, axially held between snaprings 84 and 85. A spoked wire frame 86 extends radially outwardly fromhub 82. In same embodiments rotors 80 may comprise even hitherto usedwater absorbent material such as kraft paper and other fibrousmaterials.

As in the other embodiments only a minor peripheral area of disc 80 isrepeatedly immersed in the reservoir 39, but here the added excess waterlifting function supplied by the flock of FIGURES 1-6 is accomplished byextending spokes 86 beyond the periphery of disc to form loops 87 inwhich are fixed receptacles 88 with their open ends facing the directionof rotation.

As shown in FIGURE 7 receptacles 88 scoop water up out of reservoir 39and as they reach the upper part of the housing spill the watertherefrom onto the edges of the disc body to drain down through thenon-submerged major area in the path of the air to be humidified. Operation is otherwise essentially the same as in the other embodiments.

The scope of this invention is such as to include the use of flockedopen pore plastic such as herein described on rotary drums such asdisclosed for the preferred embodiment in said Serial No. 181,567.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The presentembodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects asillustrated and not restrictive, the scope of the invention beingindicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoingdescription, and all changes which come within the meaning and range ofequivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a humidifier comprising a housing having a reservoir of water andmeans for directing air to be humidified therethrough, a rotorcomprising a disc-like body of open-pore synthetic plastic materialmounted for rotation on a horizontal axis within said housing with itslower periphery area immersed in said Water during rotation of saidrotor, means providing a water retaining layer of flocking materialcomprising relatively short water absorbent fibres attachedsubstantially uniformly over the pore walls in said body, water fromsaid peripheral area being continually distributed through the remainingarea of said body during rotation of the rotor whereby substantially allof the rotor area in the path of said air is maintained wet duringrotation of the rotor.

2. In the humidifier defined in claim 1, said plastic material beingopen-pore polyurethane foam coated with water absorbent fibres.

3. In the humidifier defined in claim 1, said rotor comprising askeletal frame and at least one integral flexible layer of said materialconforably secured upon said frame.

4. In the humidifier defined in claim 1, said body being substantiallysaucer-shaped.

5. In the humidifier defined in claim 4, said body being immersed insaid reservoir for a depth approximately equal to the edge thickness ofsaid saucer shape.

6. In a humidifier having a reservoir of water to be evaporated andmeans for directing air therethrough, a rotor mounted on a horizontalaxis and comprising a dishshaped skeletal frame lined with aconformingly shaped layer of flexible open-pore synthetic plasticmaterial, the outer edge of said layer facing substantially axially andbeing immersed in said water during rotation of the rotor and a portionof said frame extending substantially axially adjacent said outer edge.

7. A rotor assembly for a humidifier comprising a generally skeletalframe on which is attached a continuous body of open-pore plasticmaterial having its pore walls coated with a water retaining layer ofrelatively short water absorbent fibers, and means on the frame to adaptsaid rotor assembly for connection to rotation means.

8. The rotor defined in claim 7 wherein said material is polyurethane.

9. The rotor assembly defined in claim 7 wherein said open-pore plasticmate-rial is polyurethane foam having a pore size of about ten to thirtypores per lineal inch.

10. The rotor assembly defined in claim 9, wherein said water absorbentfibres are cotton fibres about onetenth of an inch in length adhesivelyattached to said pore walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 462,102 10/ 1891Schmid 26 1-92 862,541 8/1907 Comins 26192 1,758,997 5/ 1930 Bogard26'192 2,288,981 7/1942 Viebrock 261-92 2,343,820 3/ 1944 Thornton 26192X 2,464,766 3/1949 Pennington 261-92 X 2,918,138 12/1959 Lewis --522 X2,955,064 10/1960 Frohmader 26194 X 3,001,606 9/ 1961 Bierwith et 211.3,034,772 5/ 1962 Schulz. 3,075,333 1/1963 'Revell 55233 3,127,2563/1964 Boylan 55-233 3,149,626 9/1964 Wentling et al. 3,176,446 4/1965Siggelin 261-94 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,176,044 11/ 1958 France.

HARRY B. THORNTON, Primary Examiner.

T. R. MILES, Assistant Examiner.

1. IN A HUMIDIFIER COMPRISING A HOUSING HAVING A RESERVOIR OF WATER ANDMEANS FOR DIRECTING AIR TO BE HUMIDIFIED THERETHROUGH, A ROTORCOMPRISING A DISC-LIKE BODY OF OPEN-PORE SYNTHETIC PLASTIC MATERIALMOUNTED FOR ROTATION ON A HORIZONTAL AXIS WITHIN SAID HOUSING WITH ITSLOWER PERIPHERY AREA IMMERSED IN SAID WATER DURING ROTATION OF SAIDROTOR, MEANS PROVIDING A WATER RETAINING LAYER OF FLOCKING MATERIALCOMPRISING RELATIVELY SHORT WATER ABSORBENT FIBRES ATTACHEDSUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORMLY OVER THE PORE WALLS IN SAID BODY, WATER FROMSAID PERIPHERAL AREA BEING CONTINUALLY DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE REMAININGAREA OF SAID BODY DURING ROTATION OF THE ROTOR WHEREBY SUBSTANTIALLY ALLOF THE ROTOR AREA IN THE PATH OF SAID AIR IS MAINTAINED WET DURINGROTATION OF THE ROTOR.
 6. IN A HUMIDIFIER HAVING A RESERVOIR OF WATER TOBE EVAPORATED AND MEANS FOR DIRECTING AIR THERETHROUGH, A ROTOR MOUNTEDON A HORIZONTAL AXIS AND COMPRISING A DISHSHAPED SKELETAL FRAME LINEDWITH A CONFORMINGLY SHAPED LAYER OF FLEXIBLE OPEN-PORE SYNTHETIC PLASTICMATERIAL, THE OUTER EDGE OF SAID LAYER FACING SUBSTANTIALLY AXIALLY ANDBEING IMMERSED IN SAID WATER DURING ROTATION OF THE ROTOR AND A PORTIONOF SAID FRAME EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY AXIALLY ADJACENT SAID OUTER EDGE.